The Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (“TPTO”) announced that patent applicants are now able to request search and examination reports to be compiled simultaneously, in order to expedite the application procedure.
According to the Turkish Intellectual Property Law number 6769 (“IP Law”), for the evaluation and confirmation of the invention’s patentability, the patent applicant is obliged to request a search report at the time of application or within 12 months as of the application date.
Depending on the outcome of the report in which TPTO provides insight regarding the prior art and relevant invention, the applicant decides whether to proceed with the application or not. The applicant can also submit an opinion in response to the notified report.
In case the applicant wishes to proceed further with the application, it should request an examination report within three months following the receipt of the search report. At the end of this examination, TPTO decides whether the application should be patented or not.
As an alternative to the current procedure, the patent applicants are now able to request both the search report and the examination report to be prepared simultaneously, through TPTO’s amendment.
In case the applicant prefers to obtain both reports at the same time,
- if the search report has a positive outcome, TPTO will prepare and send the examination report along with the search report.
- if the search report has a negative outcome, the preparation process of examination report will start after a three-month period as of the receipt of the search report.
Please see this link for the full text of the announcement (only available in Turkish).